Pre-market surge! Cryptocurrency miner Cipher Mining continues to leverage the AI boom: after Google, it secures a $5.5 billion order from Amazon
Cipher Mining has reached a 15-year lease agreement worth $5.5 billion with Amazon, with shares rising approximately 16% in pre-market trading. The agreement will support artificial intelligence workloads, with plans to deliver 300 MW of power capacity in two phases by 2026. Additionally, Cipher announced the development of a 1 GW "Colchis" project in West Texas and signed a direct connection agreement with an American utility company. Although the third-quarter financial performance fell short of expectations, the company's revenue grew by 197.6% year-on-year
According to the Zhitong Finance APP, cryptocurrency data center operator Cipher Mining (CIFR.US) announced its third-quarter financial results and a $5.5 billion, 15-year agreement with Amazon (AMZN.US) cloud services division AWS to provide a full suite of space and power support for artificial intelligence workloads. Following the announcement, as of the time of writing, the company's stock price rose approximately 16% in pre-market trading on Monday.
Under the terms of this lease agreement, Cipher will deliver 300 MW of power capacity in two phases by 2026, with the first phase starting in July 2026 and rent commencing in August 2026. The company also announced the establishment of a joint entity to develop a 1 GW "Colchis" project in West Texas, in which Cipher will hold approximately 95% equity.
The project includes a fully executed 1 GW direct connection agreement with American Electric Power (AEP.US). Under this agreement, American Electric Power will construct the necessary dual interconnection facilities and plans to achieve full power supply by 2028.
Previously, Cipher had reached a ten-year agreement with Google (GOOGL.US). According to the company's statement, Google agreed to guarantee $1.4 billion of obligations under a ten-year contract signed with Fluidstack (not covering the entire contract amount), which involves approximately $3 billion in lease revenue.
This announcement was made alongside Cipher's financial performance for the third quarter of 2025, which did not meet Wall Street's expectations. The company's adjusted earnings per share were $0.10, with revenue of $71.71 million (a year-on-year increase of 197.6%), both slightly below expectations.
Currently, the data center industry is eager to expand capacity to meet the surge in demand driven by the AI boom. With the occurrence of Bitcoin "halving" events, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining continues to increase (as the token approaches its self-imposed supply limit), and mining profits are declining. Many cryptocurrency mining companies have shifted to data center operations.
For months, cryptocurrency miners have had a clear growth roadmap, able to accelerate revenue growth with their various GPU infrastructure. Over the past 12 to 18 months, hash rate growth has slowed, Bitcoin prices have corrected, but electricity/hardware costs have risen, making the economics of mining questionable.
However, miners like Cipher Mining have realized that the strong demand for high-performance computing workloads in artificial intelligence provides a way to monetize their data center infrastructure assets, allowing their business growth trajectory to surpass the limited economic benefits inherent in cryptocurrency mining. Partnerships with tech giants not only promise significant revenue growth but also provide a secure funding path for achieving steady growth rates in multiples
